Bulkhead trolley and locking device

ABSTRACT

In accordance with the present invention, the sprockets and rails with spaced openings are replaced with spaced longitudinally extending trolley rails on opposite sides of the car and rollers riding thereon supporting the bulkheads. In cross section, the shape of the roller is such that the bulkhead becomes largely self-aligning. The rail can readily be manufactured with available parts relatively inexpensively. Since the rollers are not interconnected a wide range of manufacturing and other tolerance variations can be tolerated. A bulkhead locking member is engageable with longitudinally spaced locking means to hold the bulkheads in a desired position in the transportation vehicle. A wide variety of geometrical arrangements and cross-sectional shapes for the supports, trolley rails and rollers may be used to obtain the self-aligning capability.

Ilnite States Patent [1 1 Malo [451 Mar. 25, 1975 BULKHEAD TROLLEY ANDLOCKING DEVICE Primed EJEmi QHR H Ward, r- Assistant Examiner-Richard A.Bertsch Attorney, Agent, or Firm--Henry W. Cummings [5 7] ABSTRACT Inaccordance with the present invention, the sprockets and rails withspaced openings are replaced with spaced longitudinally extendingtrolley rails on opposite sides of the car and rollers riding thereonsupporting the bulkheads. In cross section, the shape of the roller issuch that the bulkhead becomes largely selfaligning. The rail canreadily be manufactured with available parts relatively inexpensively.Since the rollers are not interconnected a wide range of manufacturingand other tolerance variations can be tolerated. A bulkhead lockingmember is engageable with longitudinally spaced locking means to holdthe bulkheads in a desired position in the transportation vehicle. Awide variety of geometrical arrangements and cross sectional shapes forthe supports, trolley rails and rollers may be used to obtain theself-aligning capability.

14 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures BULKHEAD TROLLEY AND LOCKING DEVICEBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Bulkheads are more and more common intransportation vehicles, particularly box cars. In order to be moved, abulkhead rolls along two trolley rails by means of two sprocketsengaging spaced openings in the rails. These sprockets often do not matewell with the openings. This alone or in combination with camber and/ortwist in the trolley rails often results in high forces required to movethe bulkhead in the vehicle. Often the bulkheads become locked in atwisted position and cannot be moved to a different position in thevehicle.

Currently, bulkhead and car manufacturers are calling for higherprecision parts in an effort to combat this problem, but this possiblesolution is costly and has not to date satisfactorily solved thisproblem.

OBJECT The object of the present invention is to provide a constructionwhereby the bulkheads in transportation vehicles, particularly those inrailroad cars, can readily be moved back and forth therein, and furtherthe tendency of the bulkheads to become difficult to move and/or lockedin a twisted position is substantially reduced and/or avoided.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, thesprockets and rails with spaced openings are replaced with spacedlongitudinally extending trolley rails on opposite sides of the carhaving rollers riding thereon supporting the bulkheads. In crosssection, the shape of the roller is such that the bulkhead becomeslargely selfaligning. The rail can readily be manufactured withavailable parts relatively inexpensively. Since the rollers' are notinterconnected a wide range of manufacturing and other tolerancevariations can be tolerated. A bulkhead locking member is engageablewith longitudinally spaced locking means to hold the bulkheads in adesired position in the transportation vehicle. A wide variety ofgeometrical arrangements for the supports, trolley rails and rollers maybe used to obtain the self-aligning capability. The cross-sectionalshapes of the trolley rails and rollers also may vary widely. In generalthe roller is channel-shaped and the cooperating contours of the railsand rollers, for example, may be circular, elliptical, triangular orrectangular.

THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a box carutilizing a longitudinally movable bulkhead having a rail and sprocketprior art arrangement for longitudinal bulkhead movement;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the rail and sprocket prior artarrangement assembly, and locking device in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the rail and trolley assembly of thepresent invention;

FIG. 41 is an enlarged view of another embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of another embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of another embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of another embodiment of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of another embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION As shown in the drawings a box car is indicatedgenerally at 10. The box car is provided with conventional trucks 12having conventional wheels thereon 14. The box car is provided withconventional ends 16 and 18 and sides 20 and 22. Sides 20 and 22 aregenerally provided with one or more doors indicated respectively at 24and 26. The doors may be of either the sliding and- /or plug door type.The box car is provided with a conventional floor 36 and a conventionalroof 32. The box car may be of the insulated type, may be of a refrigenated type and, if desired, it may be providedwith an air conditioningsystem as is commonly utilized in some refrigerator cars.

As indicated generally at M in FIGS. l and 2 conventional bulkhead rails42 are shown provided with openings 44 into which sprocket members 46and 48 engage in moving the bulkhead 43 longitudinally within the car.The hereinbefore mentioned problems of the lack ing of mating tolerancesbetween the sprockets and rail openings and/or the problem of thesprockets becoming misaligned and/or twisted and difficult to moveand/or the bulkhead being locked in a twisted position are examples ofwhy this construction has been a problem to the industry.

In accordance with the present invention this problem is reduced and/oreliminated with the trolley and rail assembly shown in FIG. 3 indicatedgenerally at 50. The assembly comprises a longitudinally extending railmember 52. Rail 52 is mounted upon the upper portion of the car, forexample, by means of appropriate fastenin the car. Bulkheads 62 can bemade by those skilled in the art according to presently available knownconstructions. integrally affixed to bulkheads 62, for example, bywelding or mechanical fasteners is a mounting plate or bracket 63 havingintegral therewith a generally transversely extending bar or rod M. Baror rod 64 is preferably hollow as indicated at 66.

Mounted for rotational movement about rod or bar 64 is a trolley memberindicated generally at 70. Trolley member is rotatable about shaft 66and has a surface 72 which cooperates with the contour 53 of the railmember. The geometrical shapes utilized should, at least partly, havethe property of rendering the bulkhead self-aligning. The contour of thetrolley will be designed to cooperate with the rail member and generallywill also be at least partly channel shaped. For example, if the contourof the rail member 53 is circular or elliptical the trolley contour willalso be at least partly semicircular or partly elliptical. It is to beemphasized that a wide variety of geometrical arrangements for the railand trolley assembly may be used. For example, as

shown in FIG. 4, a generally triangular shaped arrangement isillustrated with cooperating triangular contours 172 and 153. In FIG. 5,a generally rectangular arrangement is illustrated with cooperatingcontours 272 and 253. In FIG. 7, a generally U-shaped rail contour 353cooperates with a trolley 370 having a contour 372, which is generallysemicircular. It will thus be apparent to those skilled in the art thata variety of geometrical arrangements may be utilized for the rail andtrolley assembly. For many applications it is preferred to utilize thecircular cross section illustrated in FIG. 2. It will be apparent thatas trolley members 70 on opposite sides of the vehicle are rotated andmove along rails 52 the bulkheads 62 can be longitudinally along thecar. The rail and trolley assembly utilized on the other side of the carand its cooperating contours 72 and 53 cooperate with the rail andtrolley assembly shown to self-align the bulkheads and reduce and/oravoid the problem of the bulkheads being locked in a twisted positionwhich is often encountered in the rail and sprocket arrangements of theprior art.

In accordance with another feature of the present invention, a lockingassembly is indicated in FIG. 2 generally at 80. Locking assembly 80 maycomprise one or more fastening means 82 to hold the locking means inengagement with the bulkheads. For example, a plurality of bracketsshown in the drawings at.83 may be used to mount for transverse movementupon the bulkheads a generally elongated locking member 84. Means areprovided indicated generally at 98 for moving locking member 84 of knownconstruction, for example, transversely back and forth. For example, aconcentric cable assembly 92 having a fixed external portion 93 andmovable internal portion 94 may extend down into the body of the car andbe operable by an operator to move locking member 84 between a lockedposition within openings along the length of vehicle, for example,openings 58 as shown in FIG. 3 or an open position as shown in FIG. 4wherein locking member 84 is displaced inwardly from the fixed openings.For example, locking member 84 may pass through openings 66 in baror'rod 64.

A resilient means indicated generally at 96 is preferably provided tobias the locking member into the closed position. Resilient means 96 maycomprise a coil spring, a leaf spring, compression spring or arubber-inshear spring. A coil spring is indicated in FIG. 2 at 98. Thespring is held in place by appropriate fasteners and/or brackets, forexample as shown in FIG. 2, brackets 99 and 83 affixed to bulkhead 60.Preferably locking members 84 are provided on both sides of the car forengagement with the respective sides of the car as shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 shows a modified support member 155 which is channel-shapedhaving openings 158 in raised portion 156. Rail 52 is integraltherewith.

In FIG. 7 a rod 166 is provided (which need not be hollow) upon which ismounted trolley 370 having a cooperating contour 373. A separate hollowbar or rod 168 is then provided through which locking member 84 passesto engage openings 354 in support 355 having a rail portion 352.

In FIG. 8 a generally horizontal rod 266 is provided upon which ismounted trolley 470. A generally vertical hollow rod 268 is providedthrough which locking member 84 passes to engage openings 454 in supportmember 455 having a webportion 452 and flanges 456 and 458 which engagethe roof of the car 460. Rail 452 is integral with support 455.

It will thus be apparent that in order to move bulkheads 60longitudinally in the car, the operator utilizes cable assembly 92 tomove locking member(s) 84 inwardly against the bias of resilient means96 to move locking member 84 from the openings. Then the bulkhead ismoved longitudinally in the car by means of trolley moving on railassembly 50. When the desired position is obtained for the bulkhead inthe car, the cable is then released and the bias of resilient means 96will return locking member(s) 84 into the opening(s) in the new positionin the car.

It will be apparent that the self-aligning property of cooperatingsurfaces greatly tend to reduce the likelihood of the bulkhead becomingdifficult to move longitudinally and/or becoming locked into a twistedposition and immovable in the car. Furthermore, in one embodiment thelocking assembly is conveniently mounted with the rail assembly as shownin FIGS. 3-5.

Individual rail members and supports therefor, and already formedcombination rail and support members of various cross sections arereadily available. Individual members are easily affixed to supportstherefor by welding or mechanical fasteners. It is a simple operation toprovide opening and fasteners in the supports and/or vehicle side orroof. Affixing the trolley members to the bulkheads is readilyaccomplished by welding or mechanical fasteners, and the lockingmember(s) are easily mounted on the bulkheads.

What is claimed is:

l. A railway box car comprising: fixed rail asemblies mounted upon afixed upper portion of opposite sides of the box car; said railassemblies each having a longitudinally extending rail having a railcontour which cooperates with a contour on a rotatable bulkhead trolley;said bulkhead trolleys rotatably mounted upon a hollow member mounted ona bulkhead adapted for longitudinal movement in the box car; saidbulkhead trolleys having a channel contour adapter to engage said railcontour; means for maintaining said bulkhead in a desired positionwithin the box car comprising at least one locking member mounted on thebulkhead for transverse movement within said hollow member and beingresiliently biased to engage openings in a fixed portion of the car in aplurality of positions in the car; and actuating means to overcome theresilient bias of said locking member by an operator in the box car.

2. A railway box car according to claim 1 wherein said rail contour hasa circular cross section and said trolley contour has an at least partlysemicircular cross section.

3. A railway box car according to claim 1 wherein said rail contour hasa triangular cross section and said trolley contour has an at leastpartly triangular cross section.

4. A railway box car according to claim I wherein said rail contour hasa rectangular cross section and said trolley contour has an at leastpartly rectangular cross section.

5. A box car according to claim 1 wherein locking members are providedon both sides of the bulkhead to engage fixed portions of the car onboth sides thereof.

6. A box car assembly according to claim 1 wherein said rail assemblycomprises at least one support member integral with said rail.

7. A box car assembly according to claim 6 wherein said support memberis provided with openings for engaging said locking member.

8. A railway box car comprising:

fixed rail assemblies mounted upon a fixed upper portion of oppositesides of the box car; said rail assemblies each having a longitudinallyextending rail having a rail contour in cross section which cooperateswith a contour on a rotatable bulkhead trolley; said bulkhead trolleysrotatably mounted upon a first shaft mounted on bulkhead adapted forlongitudinal movement in the box car; said bulkhead trolleys having achannel contour engaging said rail contour; means for maintaining saidbulkhead in a desired position within the box car comprising at leastone locking member mounted on the bulkhead for movement within a secondshaft disposed horizontally and spaced generally below said first shaft;said locking member being resiliently biased to engage openings in afixed portion of the car in a plurality of positions in the car; andactuating means to overcome the resilient bias of said locking member byan operator in the box car.

9. A railway box car according to claim 8 wherein said rail contour hasa circular cross section and said trolley contour has an at least partlysemicircular cross section.

10. A railway box car according to claim 8 wherein said rail contour hasa triangular cross section and said trolley contour has an at leastpartly triangular cross section.

11. A railway box car according to claim 8 wherein said rail contour hasa rectangular cross section and said trolley has an at least partlyrectangular cross section.

12. A railway box car according to claim 8 wherein locking members areprovided on both sides of the bulkhead to engage fixed portions of thecar on both sides thereof.

13. A railway box car according to claim 8 wherein said rail assemblycomprises at least one support member integral with said rail.

14. A railway box car according to claim 13 wherein said support memberis provided with openings for engaging said locking member.

1. A railway box car comprising: fixed rail asemblies mounted upon afixed upper portion of opposite sides of the box car; said railassemblies each having a longitudinally extending rail having a railcontour which cooperates with a contour on a rotatable bulkhead trolley;said bulkhead trolleys rotatably mounted upon a hollow member mounted ona bulkhead adapted for longitudinal movement in the box car; saidbulkhead trolleys having a channel contour adapter to engage said railcontour; means for maintaining said bulkhead in a desired positionwithin the box car comprising at least one locking member mounted on thebulkhead for transverse movement within said hollow member and beingresiliently biased to engage openings in a fixed portion of the car in aplurality of positions in the car; and actuating means to overcome theresilient bias of said locking member by an operator in the box car. 2.A railway box car according to claim 1 wherein said rail contour has acircular cross section and said trolley contour has an at least partlysemicircular cross section.
 3. A railway box car according to claim 1wherein said rail contour has a triangular cross section and saidtrolley contour has an at least partly triangular cross section.
 4. Arailway box car according to claim 1 wherein said rail contour has arectangular cross section and said trolley contour has an at leastpartly rectangular cross section.
 5. A box car according to claim 1wherein locking members are provided on both sides of the bulkhead toengage fixed portions of the car on both sides thereof.
 6. A box carassembly according to claim 1 wherein said rail assembly comprises atleast one support member integral with said rail.
 7. A box car assemblyaccording to claim 6 wherein said support member is provided withopenings for engaging said locking member.
 8. A railway box carcomprising: fixed rail assemblies mounted upon a fixed upper portion ofopposite sides of the box car; said rail assemblies each having alongitudinally extending rail having a rail contour in cross sectionwhich cooperates with a contour on a rotatable bulkhead trolley; saidbulkhead trolleys rotatably mounted upon a first shaft mounted onbulkhead adapted for longitudinal movement in the box car; said bulkheadtrolleys having a channel contour engaging said rail contour; means formaintaining said bulkhead in a desired position within the box carcomprising at least one locking member mounted on the bulkhead formovement within a second shaft disposed horizontally and spacedgenerally below said first shaft; said locking member being resilientlybiased to engage openings in a fixed portion of the car in a pluralityof positions in the car; and actuating means to overcome the resilientbias of said locking member by an operator in the box car.
 9. A railwaybox car according to claim 8 wherein said rail contour has a circularcross section and said trolley contour has an at least partlysemicircular cross section.
 10. A railway box car according to claim 8wherein said rail contour has a triangular cross section and saidtrolley contour has an at least partly triangular cross section.
 11. Arailway box car according to claim 8 wherein said rail contour has arectangular cross section and said trolley has an at least partlyrectangular cross section.
 12. A railway box car according to claim 8wherein locking members are provided on both sides of the bulkhead toengage fixed portions of the car on both sides thereof.
 13. A railwaybox car according to claim 8 wherein said rail assembly comprises atleast one support member integral with said rail.
 14. A railway box caraccording to claim 13 wherein said support member is provided withopenings for engaging said locking member.